


give and take

by Morganna



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Cunnilingus, F/F, Mentions of Drowning, Not graphic novel compliant, Sex, Vaginal Fingering, im bad at tags please suggest something that’s missing if necessary, no beta to be had, spoilers for the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morganna/pseuds/Morganna
Summary: Andy’s immortality comes back, and while everyone else is celebrating, she can’t help but to think there may be consequences.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Nile Freeman
Comments: 28
Kudos: 269





	give and take

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve only seen the movie once...yesterday. I didn’t know it was a graphic novel (though I plan on buying them, I loved the movie!) so I only have reference to that. 
> 
> Also, I have no beta so this has errors. I wrote it in a few hours and don’t want to sit on it. I have none patience.

Andy wasn’t entirely certain when her immortality came back—one second she was healing from the battle at Merrick’s, scarring, walking with the ache of her wound until finally it quieted to a throb.

And the next—three months later, after they all tried to baby her, and she let them without letting them know—she was being shot again, and the bullet was popping out, the wound closing, the skin regrowing. All of them stared at her as if she were a goddess, and she’d know—since she’d been worshipped as one once.

Nicky and Joe crowded her, whopping with joy, jumping up and down, all after the mission they’d been on. But, as Andy smiled and joined in their celebrations, she felt nothing more than cold.

The feeling persisted through texting Booker—though she wavered on the decision briefly, she knew it was the right call to make. He might’ve been shunned for a hundred more years (minus three months) but he deserved to know. Ups and downs aside, he was one of her closest friends.

And they persisted through a celebratory feast in which everyone drank until they were shit faced.

And persisted through two more weeks of missions that showed over and over again, she was immortal.

Nile didn’t notice that so much, but she did notice the change. Andy could feel it after the second mission since Andy’s immortality returned.

Andy had once told Nile ‘I think you became immortal when I lost mine’. And now she couldn’t help but to worry—to fear—that Nile’s immortality was gone in turn. It wasn’t like, after all these years, they knew a lot about how they functioned. Even her, the eldest of them, knew so very little.

Was there an actual give and take? The fact that Andy didn’t have an answer disquieted her. And the fact that she was disquieted by that, made the feelings all the worse.

She should want Nile to be mortal again, shouldn’t she? To not have another person sacrificed into the life of a soldier, consigned to pain, and dying only once the cold, unfeeling universe decided that was the end.

In her defense, Andy tried very hard not to baby Nile. And in her continued defense, they had started working so well together, that it was hard to notice she was doing it. 

Neither Nicky nor Joe had caught on to the change.

Nile, however, was too close. In three months, she’d caught on to Andy’s tactics, and they’d become a team. It was startling to work like that with someone so new, to begin to understand them so intrinsically. She’d done it over the years, of course—there was Quynh and Booker.

But, with Nile, it felt different. Andy tried to pretend it wasn’t different, that it was all the same and there was nothing.

Unfortunately, nothing good lasted forever. Andy was sitting on the edge of the heated pool in the Air BnB they were currently renting out thanks to Copley’s assistance.

Nile woke up from a nightmare, Andy could hear her trying to gasp quietly on the couch. Nicky and Joe got the one bedroom because they were annoying to walk in on, and Nile had passed out on the long couch instead of the small one, and Andy hadn’t had the heart to wake her up to move her.

Also, Andy couldn’t sleep. Not much, and when she did it was always fraught with Nile dying over and over again, and Andy having no way to save her.

When Nile came out to the pool, she paused at seeing Andy. “I should’ve known you’d be out here.”

“How’s that?”

“You’ve been eyeing this pool since we arrived,” she said as she stretched and her shirt rode up, exposing her midriff. “I’m surprised you didn’t dive in yesterday.”

Andy hummed and kicked her legs in the water. It was freezing outside, and the chill persisted through the house. The water was hot and if it were possible, she would’ve melted to the bottom and stayed there.

Unfortunately, that conjured up imaged of Quynh, drowning over and over in her iron coffin. Andy’s biggest regret—the one she’d never get away from.

Nile sighed as she padded over and settled down at Andy’s side, sliding her toned calves into the water. Their thighs nearly touched, both of them wearing shorts—though Nile’s were sleep shorts, whereas Andy had yet to change out of her jean shorts and black tank-top.

“We need to talk, don’t we?”

Andy tensed and picked up the vodka bottle to her other side. “Why do you think that?”

“Don’t play that,” Nile said with a scoff. “You know exactly why.”

She stayed quiet as she drank, and was still quiet when she finished. Nile stared at her expectantly, and let out a frustrated growl when Andy didn’t speak.

“God damn it, Andromache,” she said with a plaintive sigh. “Why are you babying me again? I know you got your immortality back, but you don’t have to go treating me like the fragile new kid on the block anymore. I thought we were past that.”

The sound of her full name sent Andy’s guts into knots, but the rest of the speech soured any of those feelings. Probably for the best, if she were thinking about it. But the alcohol dulled her better angels and left only devils in its wake.

“I’m not—”

“You are!” Nile threw a hand out, as if encompassing the pool encompassed the last two weeks.

Andy took another drink, and managed to swallow before Nile yanked the bottle out of her hand and gulped down several mouthfuls.

“I’m doing what I’ve always done, Nile,” she said mildly, though she was eyeing the undulating curve of the other woman’s throat as she drank.

Nile wiped at her mouth when she finished, breathing raggedly. “No, you’re not. Before, you were treating me as an equal. Now, I’m back to being nothing. Just an annoying child to protect. I thought we’d established that I’m not a child.”

“I know you’re not a child.” Though, to be fair, with how old Andy was, everyone was technically a child. Even Booker, and Nicky, and Joe. But, she didn’t see Nile as a child any longer, not in the way she had before. Not in the way they were talking about now.

“Then stop treating me like one.” Nile scowled and drank more, and made a surprised noise when Andy took the bottle back. “Like I said, I get why you did. Your immortality is back, you defaulted. But I’m telling you not to stop.”

Andy shook her head and finished off the bottle, then stared at it sadly. The water felt too good to get up and get another one, and she wasn’t drunk enough yet for this conversation.

“Are you going to stop?”

The way Nile said it, the way she looked at Andy—it was enough to make her want to promise the moon. Nile’s dark eyes were so open and trusting, not yet jaded like everyone else’s.

“I can’t promise it’ll be immediate,” she said. Or happen at all, Andy added silently. “I’ve been at this a long time, Nile.”

Nile rolled her eyes. “Yes, yes. I know, you’re so old you’ve forgotten. I get it.” Angrily, Nile pulled her feet from the waters, and splashed a wave against the concrete, getting both of the asses wet.

“Are you upset I’m not letting you die?” Andy asked before she could stop herself. She was sure Nile had been about to leave, and instead of letting her, Andy had kept the conversation that she wanted to end, going instead.

“You damn well know that’s not what this is about,” Nile said as she stood and paced a few feet away. “That is the most ridiculous fucking thing to say.”

Andy shrugged as stood as well. “That’s what’s happening,” she said lazily. Maybe she’d been wrong earlier—maybe she’d drank too much instead of not enough. “I’m not letting you die, to feel that pain, and you’re complaining about it.”

“Don’t you dare,” said Nile as she stalked forward, finger pointed threateningly at Andy’s chest. “That is not what this is. God, why are you acting like this?”

Andy raised one eyebrow instead of yelling like she wanted to. She was afraid, and she couldn’t admit it. “Why are you?”

Nile paused, and when she acted, Andy knew she’d had too much to drink. Nile tackled her into the pool without issue, with a maneuver she should’ve been able to dodge.

The hot water engulfed them both, and for a moment Andy didn’t think she’d be able to swim to the surface. Her limbs were too uncoordinated, her mind too slow—then her head broke water, and Nile was already there, coughing a bit and spitting water out of her mouth.

Snarling, Andy lunged forward and pressed Nile to the side of the pool, bodies flush together. Before any words could leave her mouth, Nile gasped, and Andy was aware only then of what she’d done.

The water lapped at them aggressively, and Andy’s chest heaved against Nile’s and she didn’t know what to do. That small part of her brain which was sober, told her she should probably move away. But Andy didn’t want to, and she was drunk, she didn’t want to, and didn’t have to, listen to that voice.

“Andy?” Nile was staring at her with hooded eyes, and her hands were on Andy’s forearms where she had Nile boxed in. Slowly, both of them bobbing gently together in the water, Nile leaned forward.

Andy couldn’t help herself. She crushed her mouth to Nile’s and pulled a hand up to cup the back of Nile’s neck. They stayed like that for several seconds, and Andy didn’t want to stop. Nile tasted like vodka and chlorine, and Andy wanted to taste her forever.

But Nile pulled back and pressed their foreheads together, her breathing as ragged as Andy’s. “Tell me the truth, Andromache.”

“I’m afraid,” she said quietly, voice low and more vulnerable than she’d heard from her throat in a long time. “Remember what I told you at Merrick’s—about you getting immortality when I lost mine?”

Nile tilted her head. “Yes.”

“What if, when I got mine back…what if you lost yours?” There, she’d said it. Two weeks of turning those words over in her head, of chewing on their bitter seeds, and they were now in the air around them, growing thorny vines and poisonous flowers.

“I—” Nile's eyes widened. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Andy nodded and pushed away from the woman she honestly wanted to bury herself in. “I don’t think anyone else has. But, we don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.”

Silence reigned and Andy sunk a little farther in the water, until the warm waves lapped at her mouth. They were on the deep side of the pool, so there was no way to find footing, and that was fine with her. The act of staying afloat was an unconscious one, but still one that kept her occupied.

A few different emotions chased themselves around Nile’s face—hope, dread, fear. The same ones that had done constant laps in Andy’s mind since that fateful mission.

Much to her surprise, Nile reached for her. And Andy went to her easily, pressed into her again, wrapped her arms around Nile’s waist and buried her face in Nile’s neck.

“I don’t know what I want,” Nile murmured against the shell of her ear. “I’ve just gotten used to this. But if I could—I mean it’d be so complicated. I’m dead. But if I could go back to my family?”

Andy’s heart wrenched in her chest as she nodded. “I know.”

“Kiss me again, Andy.” A heartbeat passed. “Please.”

She gladly lifted herself up. Nile moaned into her mouth and again when Andy drug Nile’s bottom lip between her teeth. Andy’s fingers were at her waist, curled against her ribs, aware of every brush of skin as their legs moved together, as their shirts rode up on the waves.

Nile reached and pulled her sleep shirt up towards her throat. “Touch me,” she said quietly. “Touch me, Andromache.”

Andy trailed kisses down her neck, to her sternum, and finally to her breasts. Nile arched into the touch, into her tongue and mouth, and whimpered when Andy pinched her nipple.

Oh, the sounds she made. Andy reached down and slid her hand up Nile’s thigh, into the leg of her sleep shorts and they were no barrier—there was no barrier.

Nile clapped a hand to her mouth, and moaned behind it as Andy’s fingers rubbed her clit and her mouth sucked at a nipple, and Andy loved those sounds. She moved her mouth back up to Nile’s so she could take each one into her self and hold onto them.

Nile hooked a leg around Andy’s waist and said, “Inside, Andy. Fuck me,” and Andy slid first one finger, and then another inside of her.

The subsequent moans were loud in the room, punctuated by the slapping of the waves against the sides of the pool. Nile once again covered her mouth, this time leaning her head back against the side of the pool.

“Oh, God, Nile,” Andy murmured into her ear, not once stopping her movements. “You feel so good.”

Nile sucked in a breath. “I thought—oh God, oh God, Andy—” She gripped at Andy’s neck and whimpered into the skin there. “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”

“You’re enough to make me want to start,” she said and twisted her fingers.

Nile came against her skin, her moan low and long, and not louder than any of the others. Not that it mattered—Andy had a feeling that Joe and Nicky knew, one way or the other. Or they’d intuit what’d happened.

It didn’t matter.

Andy had Nile in her arms, and that did matter. It was all that mattered for however long it lasted.

“You can’t say things like that to people,” Nile said with a tired grin. “You’ll give them a complex.”

She rolled her eyes and cupped her hands under Nile to lift her out of the pool. Absently she pressed kisses to Nile’s knees, her thighs—but was stopped before she got to where she really wanted to be.

“No ma’am,” Nile said with a laugh. “It’s your turn.”

Andy grabbed the hand on her head and drew it away. “I’m your elder, Nile. You should listen to me,” she said as she moved further up. Nile’s wet skin was so smooth, so beautiful.

Nile’s breath hitched. “Don’t remind me of that age distance. I don’t even know what to think.”

“I don’t want you thinking at all,” Andy said as she grabbed the hem of Nile’s shorts and with a little maneuvering had them off. She pushed Nile’s thighs further apart and bit her lip at the sight before her.

“Fuck, Andy. First saying that, and now the way you’re looking at me.” Nile shook her head, then gasped again as Andy moved in and drug her tongue up Nile’s slit. “Complex. That’s—ah—that’s all I’m saying.”

Andy wanted to tell her that having a complex wasn’t so bad, especially since women who knew they were sexy were a thousand—a million—times sexier. But, she didn’t want to stop, and she felt that proved her point, too.

At some point, Nile leaned and drew her shirt up her chest, and Andy’s clit throbbed at the sight that made. Nile cupping her breasts and twisting her nipples, back arched—and the sound of her moans a soundtrack to it all.

When Nile came again, she stayed taunt for longer, and her moans were louder, and Andy tried to make it last as long as possible. Until Nile gasped out ‘mercy, Andy, mercy!’ and she dutifully stopped and drew back. Drew herself out of the water to collapse beside her.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” she admitted quietly as Nile recovered. “For too long, maybe.”

Nile grinned and reached out a hand to cup her cheek. “Give me a few minutes. And in the meantime, I think you left my shorts at the bottom of the pool.”

Smug, Andy grinned and left them there as she stood and swept Nile up and to one of the cushioned lounge chairs—honestly, it was basically a small bed. Bigger than the couches her and Nile were meant to be sleeping on.

~*~

In the end, she found out the answer to her questions whether she wanted one or not—a week later, Nile saved her from a bullet. And Andy’s axe took out the guy who shot it.

All she could do was watch in horror as Nile laid there.

And laid there.

And laid there.

And finally coughed as the bullet popped out. As the skin regrew.

Andromache the Scythian had known terror and joy many times in her life. And right then, she knew both in such quick succession it made her fall to her knees and kiss Nile until the rest of the guard showed up to pull them apart and remind them they were still on a mission.

Forever was a long time. A time that stretched out, that she’d thought was nearly over for her. But, Nile hadn’t only reminded her that she’d done so much good in all her years—but she’d also given her back her immortality. She’d shown her, and given her, a reason to keep on living.

**Author's Note:**

> The end is a little abrupt? I think? But I didn’t want it going on too long. Honestly, it’s way more than I thought I’d write, and when I set a goal for it begrudgingly, it was still just shy of 1k over that. But here it is. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
